The Dawn of Darkness
by Zodiac Sefirosu
Summary: When a teenage girl is tossed into the Dissidia universe, who knows what will happen? Is based on FF:Dissidia. Companion fic to the dawn of the dusk. Rated T for language.
1. Arrival

None of the characters belong to me except Amalia.

* * *

I slowly open my eyes, hating being woken up by light, in this case, an ever-present, pallid one that seemed to come from everywhere. I groan and instantly close my eyes again at the brightness piercing my retinas as I cover my eyes with my jacket sleeve…wait, jacket? This time, I open my eyes completely, ignoring the watering that the light caused from them, and glanced at my outfit. Somehow, I had my light, dark blue jacket on above the only shirt I have that signifies me as a gamer, a bright yellow one with Mario riding Yoshi in the middle and various Japanese words that I don't know around it.

"_At least I'm wearing slacks." _I comment to myself mentally as I looked at the dark blue, almost black, casual pants. I then looked down at my bare feet and finally noticed everything seemed blurry and unfocused. "Gah!" I exclaim, an almost-white hand reaching up to my equally-pale face, feeling for something that wasn't there. "Where the heck're my glasses?!"

"Looking for these?" A male, slightly nasally voice asked from behind me.

I scooted around to face the source, a knight with silver hair, garbed in cerulean and dull yellow armor with a golden cape, none other than the Warrior of Light himself. One of his arms were outstretched towards me with my pair of glasses in his hand. I wordlessly took them and fondly stroked the side, which was a shimmering shade of green that reminded me of mako before putting them on, everything instantly becoming crystal-clear.

Ignoring my desire to strangle the hero in front of me, I instead examined my surroundings, now that my eyes had gotten used to the light. Ankle-high water bordered the seat which was like half a bowl that I sat on and continued endlessly in all directions. I noticed strands of what seemed to be the Lifestream flowing like hills around the landscape.

"So, you've finally awoken." The warrior commented, examining me as though I were an alien.

I nodded, brushing some of my messy, naturally-red hair out of my face while seething on the inside due to my bad luck of getting stuck with a hero.

"Well, are you going to tell me your name?" He inquired while offering me a hand to help me up.

"Amalia." I quickly decide as I got up of my own accord, knowing full well he need only look inside the inner pocket of my jacket to find my school I.D., thus also finding my true name. _"At least Cloud isn't here."_

"Hey, she's finally awake." I heard the Warrior of Light say to at least one other person.

I felt someone place their hand on my shoulder. "So, are you alright?"

I choked down the urge to snarl at the voice and my luck's sense of humor as I turned my head to see the blond-haired fighter who had asked the question and eight other heroes behind him, staring at me with concern evident on their faces. _"At least Sephiroth isn't here."_ I said pleadingly to myself in my mind. Unfortunately for me, my damn luck stopped listening at that point.


	2. Sanctuary

The god of discord studied the split screen in the orb that was in front of his throne. In one screen, there was a female teenager with pale skin and naturally red hair while a slightly older girl with black hair and tan skin was in the other. The latter was currently fighting one of his advanced warriors, Kuja, if he remembered correctly. She might join his side, if his warriors did not decide to rip her to shreds first, although, it was equally likely that she would go to the goddess's side from what he could see. The first girl was wandering around in Exdeath's world in what seemed to be a bad mood due to her body language. She seemed more likely to join his side since she was muttering about her bad luck in getting stuck with the heroes. Chaos curled his tail around his feet and tapped his claws together as he watched the two girls' tales play out.

* * *

I wandered around by myself while muttering softly about my stupid luck, trying to find a nice place to just think about what has happened without being bothered by the warriors of Cosmos. I was so ticked off at my predicament that I barely glanced at my surroundings. From what I did see, it seemed to be a classic fairytale scene but with a twist. There were castles settled on grassy platforms, one of which I was standing on, the rest seemed to be just empty space, though the sky was nice. A slightly heavy weight on my head and a cheerful-sounding "Hiya Amalia!" caught my attention and I inwardly groaned, not wanting to be with one of the more hyper warriors. "What do you want, Zidane?"

The monkey-boy tilted his head at the slightly harsh tone in my voice. "I just thought I could spend some time with you and get to know you. I even brought Bartz and Squall."

"_Well, at least Squall's here. I can tolerate him."_ I thought to myself. "I am not exactly in the mood for hanging out right now."

He tilted his head to the other side. "Why not?"

"Jee, I wonder. I got unexpectedly ripped from my home world and ended up here with no clue of what to do or how to leave." I snapped at him.

"Hey, there's no need to snap at him." The brunette known as Squall interjected. "We came here the same way."

"At least you guys know what to do. You have your Cosmos Crystals to track down while I have nothing to do." I muttered, crossing my arms over my chest.

"So, you're saying you're bored?" The other brunette of the group, Bartz, asked.

"You try having nothing to do while everyone else around you goes on their own personalized adventure, now, if you'll excuse me." I pushed Zidane off my head before going into the nearest building and locking the door behind me. I turned away from the door and grinned immediately at the stroke of good luck for once as I gazed upon the library I found myself in. I walked up to one of the bookshelves in the room and took a book off it. "Hm, that's weird." I commented as I turned the book over. "There's no title." I chuckled softly to myself. "Wow. I got transported to another world, found all sorts of strange people, and have no idea what is going on and I find a book having no title as weird." I opened the book and tilted my head at the picture on the first page. The picture was a girl that looked to be a few years older than myself who had shoulder-length, black hair and tan skin. She had on a v-neck shirt under a jacket, black Capri pants, and had a silky scarf as a belt. There were also small gems scattered around her outfit and hair like some of the heroes here. "Huh. I've never seen a picture like that at the start of a book before." I shrugged, brushing it off as another of this world's weirdness before turning the page. I frowned at the blank page before thumbing through the book, just finding more pristine, white pages facing me. "Now who would make a book with just a drawing on the first page?" I asked myself as I placed it back on the shelf. This time, I chose a book about elemental magics and made sure there was actually words in it before sitting down and beginning to read it.


	3. Companionship

Guys, guys! Duodecim! :D *Spazzes*

* * *

Chaos glanced back into his orb and noticed that the older girl appeared to be moving closer to the younger one's position. "What shall happen when the two opposite-minded girls met?" He pondered to himself.

* * *

I closed the book I had just finished reading and added it to the steadily growing pile beside me. I sighed happily to myself as I pushed my glasses back up against my nose. It had been far too long since I simply curled up with a good book for awhile and this opportunity reminded me of why I used to do it. I tapped my finger against my chin as I tried to recall the last time I was so enthralled in a book that I could not put it down. It was a good old horror story I read a few years ago about a vampire that granted peoples' deepest wishes for essentially the soul of a victim in return, making his victims basically civilized zombies. The story ended up being so intriguing that I secretly stayed up past my bedtime to read it. I shook my head and sighed to myself. "Why am I thinking about this?" I muttered to myself rhetorically, knowing full well that I tend to go off on a tangent with my thoughts quite a bit. I thought I heard something, maybe a book falling off a shelf. I simply shook my head, knowing that I also tended to imagine noises around myself when I was alone due to being somewhat paranoid. I glanced over at the small pile of five short books I had managed to read and figured I might as well put them back where they were now before the pile grew too big for me to carry. I picked up the pile, the short time I worked as a library's assistant helping me, and weaved through the shelves to attempt to remember where I had gotten each one.

* * *

I wandered around the shelves after placing all the books in their respective spots, eagerly looking for more to read, but being very picky about them as I always am. I froze in my place as I heard two unfamiliar voices speaking to each other a couple of shelves' distance from my current position. I carefully inched closer to them, always having a shelf between them and myself. I noticed the voices had stopped, but did not think they heard me approach them. My thoughts were clearly wrong as I peeked past the end of a shelf and found the teenage girl I saw in the first book I picked up in the flesh and looking at me. That was not what had my attention, though. The one holding my attention was a tall, heavily-armored, what I was assuming as a man standing beside her. I let out a soft squeak at him before ducking right back behind the bookshelf.

"Come out. We won't hurt you." I heard the teenager say as though I was a mere child she was attempting to console.

"Hmph." I replied back stubbornly as I peeked back past the end. "Others have made that unconscious promise and have broken it before." I snapped at her, remembering people from my past that treated me with false compassion merely to betray me later.

"Sorry," I heard her respond back. "I'm just excited to see a friendly face for once. Hi, I'm Lauren and this is Golbez."

I followed her finger as she pointed to the armored one while she said his name. I took this short opportunity to study him. He was wearing a full body suit of armor, even covering up his face with a helmet. All of the armor was covered in nice, alternating colors of deep purple, black, and gold. He was also wearing large pauldrons that had a long cape attached that reached down to the floor. After examining the larger person, I cautiously examined the other girl's words and tone of voice. After deeming that her term was sincere, I allowed myself to relax, but not completely. "Amanda." I decided to entrust her with my true name with a slight nod of my head that I used as a greeting or a sign of thanks.

"So umm... Amanda, why were you hiding?"

I noticed that she was wringing her hands as she asked me this and a questioning look came across my face. "Well, I don't know about you, but from where I come from, there aren't people wearing a full suit of armor."

She laughs at my response. "I know what you mean. I've seen others with him and his attire seem like the closest to normal."

I scratched my chin again as I thought to myself while looking over the armored man again. "Hm, come to think of it, I did see someone wearing armor kinda like his, just smaller and not as many spikes."

The armored one spoke up at this. "You mean my brother, Cecil."

I nodded, remembering the name that I had forgotten with trying to remember nine others. "That's his name, forgot it. Was never really much good at remembering names."

"Me too." She grinned. "My memory is horrible unless there's something unique about the person."

"Well, the people around here seem to be really different from the ones from my world." I responded back, glancing around the large library.

"Mine too." The teenager replied to me. She then turns her head to the armored one whose body language seemed uncomfortable. "What is it?"

"Your friend isn't someone who wishes to be on Cosmos' side." He responded to my new friend's question.

My eyes narrowed at him and I crossed my arms across my chest as I tensed back up. "What of it?" I asked in a soft, but warning tone. I quickly dodged out of the way as a large rock flew past where I just was. _"Heh. Years of dodgeball dodging finally pay off." _I thought playfully before turning my attention to my attacker. "The hell was that for?" I exclaimed to Golbez, my anger at the time negating my manners to rarely ever curse out loud.

"Just testing your reflexives." He responded calmly back to me.

I simply looked at him incredulously before I continued my rant. "Are you kidding me?" I kept yelling at him. "That could've killed me!"

I looked up at the older girl as she hugs me with a protective feel, though also with a slight grip as though to hold me back. "So what? Sides don't matter to me." She said.

I blinked silently up at the older girl, not used to receiving this amount of affection from even my closest friends. Sure, my friends and I were close, but never hugged each other.

I noticed that Golbez has gotten a little stiffer, as he recognized the gesture as one a sibling might use to protect the other from something.

She turns her head to me with confusion on her face. "What is Golbez talking about?" She inquired to me.

I shrugged, not particularly wanting to answer the question. I mentally sighed to myself as I realized that I would probably have to tell her sooner or later and decided to answer her question. "I can't stand most of the so-called 'heroes'. They don't act serious enough for their mission."

She shrugged back in response seemingly as a sign of neutrality.

I gestured to the arms wrapped around myself, feeling awkward in the embrace, one of the reasons why my friends and I never hugged. "Why are you hugging me?" I asked her with a raised eyebrow.

"I have no idea. I've been asking myself the same question with my sisters." She replies as she lets go.

"But they are familiar to you. Do you normally go around hugging complete strangers?" I asked as I mentally decided that being hugged was not so bad, at least by this one.

"Nope." She had a thoughtful look on her face with her head tilted and a finger to her lips. "Guess I was caught up in the moment."

I raised an eyebrow, not understanding how that would make her hug a stranger.

"Then again, my family does think I'm weird."

* * *

The other teen started to get bored and sat down, cross legged, to read.

I sat down by her with my legs tucked beneath myself and picked up a book from the pile she had already read about mythology.

Golbez sighed at both of us. "Do you two girls realize what sort of danger you're in?"

My new friend lifts her eyes from her book.

I pushed my glasses, which had fallen a bit, back up my nose. "This seems like a relatively safe place, though." I said, considering they were the only people I had seen since coming here.

"Then again, we are new and someone might think we are useful or useless." She explained to me as she waved her hand in dismissal.

"How would we be useful to them?" I asked as I mentally tilted my head, not seeing how a couple of teenagers could help in this realm of magic.

"Yeah, there's a war going on and I think they want to recruit us into their side." She answered.

"Why us? I'm not sure about you, but I'm pretty weak." I said, admitting my strength as equal to a stereotypical nerd.

"Same here." She beamed at me. "I got whooped against Kuja and still here." Her face turn stern. "The ones who were watching us are serious about this."

I frowned as I thought to myself of why they would want us. "They must see something in us that we can't."

"Amanda, ever heard of tales of Chaos and Cosmos?" The warlock asks me.

I pushed my glasses up again by the bottom of the frame. "Chaos is the lord of discord, but can be used to describe when things go to heck. Cosmos is what could be considered as good, but can also mean the depths of starry space."

He nodded. "Chaos, the god of discord, primarily recruits those who caused destruction to their own world. Cosmos, the goddess of harmony, recruits at least one hero who have faced their adversary to counter it."

I scratched the back of my head sheepishly. "I don't count under either of those categories. Though, if I could fall under either, I probably wouldn't be a hero since I'm insanely timid when it comes to dealing with problems, especially if I don't have a companion to help me with it." _"At least when it comes to exploring dungeons or something." _I added mentally, remembering my reluctance of entering video game dungeons without an in-game companion.

"Me too. I'm timid when it comes to problem solving." Her back straightens up. "Yeah, why bother sending two teenage girls when they have zip experience of combat?" My dark haired friend added.

"Maybe they want us for our knowledge." I suggested.  
He crossed his arms. "It's your characteristics. They will change the tide in a heartbeat."  
I tilted my head in confusion. "Why would our characteristics change a war?"

"I think hatred is considered as evil so it must be with Chaos' forces and something like love is good so that means it is Cosmos'." The other teen elaborated.

"But all of the people on either side must have those characteristics, so why should we be able to make any difference?" I pondered.

Lauren glances over to Golbez. "Golbez was with them but he reacted when I said, 's-sister,' so these family ties means a lot to him."

"Well, I have an older brother and I imagine that Cecil looks up to him like I with mine." I added.

"I wonder why..." The dark haired muttered to herself.

"Why what?" I asked.

"Someone who is on the destructive side wishes to aid the protectors."

I shrugged. "He must have his reasons."

Golbez nodded in agreement to the me.

"Then what are they?" I asked curiously, tending to ask questions sometimes that were not appropriate to ask.

The other girl waves her hand to at me drop the subject.

I obeyed her.

* * *

Lauren starts putting away her books.

I helped her, picking up as many as I could.

"I'll look for this 'Cosmos' deity." She said before she turned her head to me. "Wanna come?"

Golbez leaves us alone to our adventure, me not noticing his absence until a few minutes he had left.

I shrugged. "I guess. It's not like I have much else to do, but I won't be in a good mood if we come across her warriors."

"I've seen nine of Chaos' so I'll help you steer from them."

"I saw ten of Cosmos's warriors." I added in.

She tilts her head in confusion at me. "You don't like them but still go with me to see their leader?"

I crossed my arms against my chest. "As I said, I don't have much else to do and I prefer having someone else with me in an unfamiliar place."

"Sorry." She apologized.

* * *

The world changes into a light grey sky as Lauren traveled with me and the floor looks like water but it isn't soaking into our shoes. Up ahead we could feel something pure and walks towards it. She suddenly yawned.

I snapped out of staring into space as she walked when I heard her yawn. "You alright?" I asked her, slight concern evident in my voice.

"So..." another yawn came, "...tired."

"Then you should rest." I said simply.

"What if Chaos' warriors come here?" She asks worriedly.

"It seems too peaceful for them to come here." I said as I looked around.

She lies down on the floor, using one arm as a pillow.

I sat down next to her, wrapping my arms around my legs and resting my head on my knees. I mumbled softly as I buried my eyes into my knees to hide them from the light.

Meanwhile, a warrior watched the two girls from a distance. Drawn to his current position from afar due to a couple of new presences in this never-ending war, he had decided to see if the new ones were anything special. He looked at them the same way he had done so many times in his past life with various soldiers hoping to find fame. "Hm, weak at the moment, but with the proper training..."  
Sephiroth took one last glance at the sleeping girls before teleporting away, pondering on how he could use them to his advantage without alerting the other Chaos warriors to his intentions.


End file.
